Police: Drunk man Tasers arresting officer after celebrating birthday

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EUGENE, Ore. -- A drunk man Tasered a police officer with the officer's own stun gun early Saturday morning after fighting with Eugene Police who tried to get him to leave Good Times bar, police officials said.

Officers said Jessie Wright was out celebrating his 30th birthday on Friday night when bar staff at Good Times asked for the police to help escort him off the property.

Eugene Police Sergeant Kyle Williams said the incident started early Saturday morning when an officer was conducting a field sobriety check in the Good Times parking lot.

The officer conducting the field test said Wright and a friend interfered and said that the driver was being harassed.

Wright eventually went back to the bar, and Good Times employees asked police to stay close as they were "going to request Wright and his group leave due to their level of intoxication", Eugene Police said.

A short time later one officer said he called for backup after wright approached his car and started yelling obscenities about the bar staff.

Sgt. Williams said that both his group of friends and officers repeatedly asked Wright to leave.

"(Wright) was out celebrating his birthday with friends at the bar. The group was really cooperative, and they were just trying to get him to leave peacefully," said Sgt. Williams.

At one point Jessie Wright (pictured right) started to walk away, but then police said he turned around and aggressively thrust his finger within inches of an officer's face.

It was at that point officers said they put Wright in an arm bar and told him he was under arrest.

Jessie Wright's friends Brandon and Anna both admitted that he had a few too many drinks. But they said that Wright wasn't being aggressive with the officers.

"How do you define an aggressively thrusting finger? I mean … that doesn't make any sense," Anna said.

He started to struggle and police warned him that they would use a Taser if he continued to fight the arrest, police said.

Officials reported that Wright broke free of their hold and an officer shot him with a Taser gun. Wright was only hit with one electrode probe so the stun gun didn't affect him, police said.

Eugene police said that Wright continued to resist the arrest so another officer tried using a hand-held Taser.

"The suspect was able to grab the hand of the officer and redirect the Taser to the officers leg where it cycled a number of times," said Eugene Police Sergeant David Natt.

Brandon said he did see Wright reach his hand back and grab the Taser, but he did not turn it on the officers.

"He wouldn't try to harm a cop and make things worse," said Brandon. "At that point he went into a seizure."

Brandon said Jessie is prone to seizures and fell into one after being Tasered. He told KVAL News that officers thought he was faking the seizure.

After using the Taser, officers pepper sprayed Wright and he eventually stopped fighting, police said.

"The whole thing was over relatively quickly," said Sgt. Williams. "This type of thing doesn't happen very often, thankfully."

Medics treated Wright and the officers at the scene before Wright was booked at the Lane County Jail early Saturday morning on multiple charges including assault on an officer, unlawful use of a stun gun and resisting arrest.